


Walking With The Dawn

by Fable



Series: Merlin [24]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 02:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10066838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fable/pseuds/Fable
Summary: Too warm to sleep, Merlin takes a walk which leads to his destiny... finally.





	

My small bedchamber was humid and sticky; the long night had passed in a haze of tossing my blankets off and sighing. Hottest summer in his records, Gaius had said, I didn’t care about records, I was sweaty and tired. Then, as I considered removing my thin nightshirt and lying in the nude, the weak light of early dawn crept through the square window above my desk and cast a buttery line across the room. Giving in to the day, I slipped out of bed, pulled on my trousers, and considered my boots. Nope, it was too hot; barefoot it was.

Creeping past a snoozing Gaius I noted how much cooler it was in the old man’s chambers, probably the open barrels of water containing eels he had around the place. He said something about making a serum to cure the heart but at the time I wasn’t listening, I was watching Arthur pace the chamber waiting for his big-muscle ointment—or that’s what I called it. I hoped one day to apply said ointment on Arthur’s muscles, big… or small.

It was cooler in the dim courtyard and I gave thanks to the breeze that played with the hair on my bare chest. I’d removed the nightshirt and would’ve gone completely naked but I didn’t want to shock the palace guards… and I’d have been arrested. I glanced up at Arthur’s bedchamber and nearly needed Gauis’ serum to restart my heart as a bare-chested Prince stood, hands on hips, staring at me through the open window. He leaned out.

‘Merlin?’

‘Um, yes?’

‘Where are you going half dressed?’

‘Walking with the dawn,’ I said more poetically than I intended. Sir Leon had been giving me poetry lessons recently, they always ended… with satisfaction.

‘Don’t move a muscle.’ Arthur commanded and then he disappeared from the window.

Was I in trouble? Should I run just in case? I’d just turned to leave when Arthur appeared at the top of the courtyard steps and bounced down them three at a time. I loved it when he did that, it was a skill I’d never mastered.

‘I’m coming with you. It’s too hot to sleep.’ He’d remained bare-chested with a belt circling his waist, sword hanging limply at his hip, and trousers loosely laced. If I'd pulled the end of a lace, I would've exposed Arthur’s charms for my eyes only. It was sorely tempting, but I didn’t, of course.

He looked me up and down. ‘You’re skinny.’

‘Yes, Sire. And you’re… not.’

‘Yes…’ The Prince adjusted his sword and marched off. I never thought about carrying a weapon but I wasn’t the Crown Prince and I had magic to protect me. I ran after him.

We left the courtyard just as the sun broke the horizon and walked side by side in silence for a while until we reached the foot of the hill that overlooks Camelot.

‘You know Gwaine is seeing that young barmaid from the tavern,’ Arthur said and swiped at a flower head with his sword.

Was Arthur making small talk? With me? I considered the Prince for a second before replying, ‘No, that’s news to me.’

‘Merlin, everything is news to you.’

He had a point. ‘What’s she like?’

Arthur frowned, said, ‘um, like a barmaid, I suppose,’ and strode off.

I chased after him and pursued the conversation. ‘Do you think all maids look the same then? You know… like Gwen.’

Arthur stopped abruptly and jabbed his sword at my chest. I took a step back, but the shiny point followed me with intent. ‘Why did you mention Gwen?’

‘Um, dunno, conversation I guess.’

‘Yeeesss,’ Arthur murmured. ‘Don’t speak,’ he dropped the blade and stalked off.

Sore subject but I really liked to push Arthur. I’d dreamed of pushing, and pulling, Arthur many times. ‘You like her don’t you?’

‘Shut up, Merlin,’ Arthur growled and swung his sword in a circle.

I fell in step with him and reminded myself I was taking a dawn stroll half-naked with the Prince of Camelot. I grinned to myself.

Arthur must have caught me in the corner of his eye because he huffed, ‘Why the idiot-grin?’

‘Dunno. Lovely day? Cool breeze? Good company?’ We reached the lip of land that jutted out along the top of the hill. The breeze turned gusty and I half wished I’d worn my shirt and boots but then that would have been no fun.

‘Good company, eh?’ Arthur sat on an old log, leant back a little, and spread his legs out in front of him. ‘You’ve never said that before.’

I so wanted to push him off the log, drag him into the low bush that grew behind it, pull at those tantalising laces, and apply ointment…

‘Merlin, Merlin.’ Arthur clicked his fingers and brought me back to the now. ‘Where were you?’

‘In the bush.’

‘Riigghht,’ he said slowly as if I were the village idiot.

I sat next to him, felt the grass slide between my toes, and clasped my hands in my lap. Laid out in front of us, the pale stones of the Palace glowed in the early light and the towers silhouetted against the sky like mighty soldiers. I wanted this moment to never end, to be half-naked with Arthur forever, to have him to myself for an eternity. Maybe an incantation would do it? But alas, even I couldn’t stop time. I nodded towards the citadel. ‘It’s beautiful.’

‘Yes. It is.’

‘It’ll be all yours one day,’ I said sweeping a dramatic hand along the horizon.

‘Yeess.’ Arthur dug his sword into a patch of red-brown earth and drew the shape of a blade.

A knot of wood was sticking in my arse so I shuffled sideways towards Arthur, at the same time he reached across to complete the hilt on his sword drawing. Warm bare body connected with warm bare body and the electricity between us was instant, shooting, and blasted up my spine; Arthur leapt up as if his arse were alight, with his sword aloft, and staring eyes as round as wooden shields. I sat unmoving, gawping, and waiting, for what I didn’t know.

‘Um,’ the Prince muttered. ‘Um,’ he said again before sitting on the log, this time at the other end from me.

We sat in silence for a long moment as the rising sun turned the grass around us from grey to green.

‘Come on.’ Arthur broke the silence. ‘There’s my boots to clean, my clothes to wash, my horses to groom, my chambers to tidy, my armour to polish… oh, and I’m hungry.’ He stood.

I pushed up to join him. ‘Yes, Sire.’

‘Also…’ the Prince shuffled his bare feet in the dirt. ‘My bed needs making…’ He cleared his throat before saying, ‘…it may take two of us.’

I bowed but my eyes remained fixed on the startling blue of his. ‘Yes, my Lord,’ I whispered.

‘Yes, um, well.’ Arthur shifted his hips and fiddled with his belt buckle before stating, ‘Race you?’ He turned and pelted down the hill as spry as a yearling.

I watched the muscles in his back jostle for space, the swell of his arse cheeks grind against each other, and his blonde hair wave in the wind before darting after him and finally into his bed.

 


End file.
